I have placed this question elsewhere, but apart from the suggestion to use AppleScript instead, which would take me weeks to learn, I got no answer.
I am running a repetitive task in Numbers and would like to automate it, just as I would do with a simple macro in Excel. I've recorded a number of actions and would like to run them in Numbers by pressing a custom button or shortcut. Is there any way to do this?
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.13
There are no "buttons" in Numbers to which an automator app or Applescript can be assigned. You can assign a key combination, though, if you make your automator document a "quick action" so it shows up in the Numbers/Services menu. "Run AppleScript" is one of the actions in Automator so you can also assign a key combo to an AppleScript.
If you need a "button", you could try making an app in Automator and then placing that app in the dock where you can click on it. For instance, I created a very simple app to do the key combination for "full screen" (which is the same across a lot of Apple apps) and I placed it in the dock so I could invoke it with a click when running apps I want to see in full screen (like for watching movies in Quicktime).
Watch me do is pretty limited in what it can do. If you need to click on a cell in a table, that cell better be in the same X-Y location in the window as it was when you recorded the "watch me do" or it will click in the wrong cell or not in the table at all.
There are no "buttons" in Numbers to which an automator app or Applescript can be assigned. You can assign a key combination, though, if you make your automator document a "quick action" so it shows up in the Numbers/Services menu. "Run AppleScript" is one of the actions in Automator so you can also assign a key combo to an AppleScript.
If you need a "button", you could try making an app in Automator and then placing that app in the dock where you can click on it. For instance, I created a very simple app to do the key combination for "full screen" (which is the same across a lot of Apple apps) and I placed it in the dock so I could invoke it with a click when running apps I want to see in full screen (like for watching movies in Quicktime).
Watch me do is pretty limited in what it can do. If you need to click on a cell in a table, that cell better be in the same X-Y location in the window as it was when you recorded the "watch me do" or it will click in the wrong cell or not in the table at all.
pieemme wrote:
I got no answer.
Not exactly true.😀 I spent time considering your problem in your other thread and giving you an answer. I think you may have unrealistic expectations about automation. Automation can save time for repetitive tasks. But it can't read your mind. Nor can your fellow users here in this forum.
You seem to be fixated on using a very old type of automation on the Mac that, as far as I know, is not widely used. I can't help you with it. Maybe others here can. But I suspect it is not suitable for the problem you outlined in the other thread.
I suggested you give more details of your problem so perhaps an AppleScript could be suggested that you could press a button to run. But you ruled that out, and seem to rule it out again here.
SG
"… just as I would do with a simple macro in Excel."
Perhaps you've provided the answer to your question. Whether it's a useful answer would depend on whether the Mac version of MS Excel supports Excel macros.
Regards,
Barry
Thanks for your time, but I meant I got no answer to the question I had posed. I am not a coder but do have occasionally coded (.in asp, for example). However, as usual in automation, there is a basic dilemma, whether it is worthwhile to develop something specific to do a repetitive one-time task or just do it. I am always tempted to teach the machine to help me and thereby learn something new, rather than bend myself to doing it. My wife was already teasing me about my inclination to get bogged down with my computer. I had always been tempted to find out what Automator was there for and this seemed to be a good opportunity to find out. Pretty cosmetic, I would call its features.
Thanks for your suggestions. In fact, my approach would have been a trial and error one with "add automation as you go". What is disappointing in Numbers it that there are no customisable shortcuts.
If the answer is using Excel, no thanks. I had purchased MS Office on my earlier MacBook, but it was no longer usable in the new one. And the good news was that I could happily live without paying MS a rent for using its 30 years old software.
Using Watch Me Do in Numbers
